Frozen is about two princesses: Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and her older sister Elsa (Idina Menzel). Elsa has a curse (not very well explained) that lets her manipulate snow and ice, but she isn’t good at controlling it. On the night of Elsa’s coronation, Anna meets the charming prince Hans (Santino Fontana). She believes it’s true love and they get engaged. But when Anna asks Elsa for her blessing, Elsa gets angry and accidentally freezes the land into eternal winter. Elsa runs away so that she doesn’t hurt anyone else and Anna heads out on a quest to find her. Along the way, she meets Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), an ice seller who becomes another love interest for her.

But even with all the bad press, I still went to see Frozen last weekend. Personally, I can’t help but get excited about Disney princesses even though I realize that they reinforce many real problems. Growing up in the nineties, Belle, Ariel, Mulan, and Jasmine were a huge part of my childhood, so I wanted to give Frozen a chance.

After emerging from the theater, I felt like Frozen was a mixed bag: not as bad as I feared it would be, but not as fun to watch as Tangled or as subversive as Brave. Here are my pros and cons.

Mild spoilers ahead.

Pro: It passes the Bechdel test. There are two female characters: Anna and Elsa. They talk about a lot of things other than boys, so we can check that off the list. It’s notable that the last three princess movies (Tangled, Brave, and Frozen) all featured central relationships with two females who are related to each other. It would be nice at some point to explore friendship between girls who aren't related, but as it is, the two leads have a good and complex relationship.

Con: The plot doesn't make a lot of sense. The movie rested on the fact that Elsa was “cursed” but they never explained how or why she had magic and Anna didn’t. They also didn’t do a great job of explaining why there were magical rock trolls who were “love experts.” There are just a lot of plot holes here, people.

Pro: Kristen Bell. Kristen Bell voices the main character Anna, and she was great. Though the animators apparently have trouble giving real emotion to female characters, Bell brought real some wit and sass to Anna. This saved the character from being just a typical 21st century heroine: generically brave and endearingly clumsy and awkward. I didn’t even know Bell could sing, but she carried the film.

Con: The other main characters aren’t very well developed. Elsa, Kristoff, and Hans have a lot of potential, but it seemed like there may have been too many characters and not enough time to flesh all of them out. This was especially disappointing for Elsa since it was exciting to have two main female characters, but not as exciting when one of them doesn’t have a real personality.

Pro: Elsa isn’t evil. It seemed ambiguous from the marketing whether Elsa was going to end up being a villain, but she turned out not to be. This was a refreshing deviation from many films that feature two main female characters where they’re typically plotting and scheming against each other.

Con: Annoying love triangles. I personally don’t mind romantic plots in general, but I’m with the folks who think that love triangles are an annoying and tired way to create conflict. Having the love story with Hans gave Anna less time to develop a real relationship with Kristoff, which made both relationships come off as generic. As it was, I definitely wanted some more Kristoff scenes. They didn’t even have a sappy love song together! Bummer.

Pro: The girls don’t wait around for princes to rescue them with kisses. I’m not going to totally ruin it for people who haven’t seen the film but, as you would expect from Disney, there’s a climatic scene where someone can only be saved with the magic of “true love.” It seems like this act of love is going to be a kiss between romantic interests, a la Sleeping Beauty/Snow White, but it’s not! Instead, the true love is an act of sisterly devotion. So yay for forgoing the notions that romance fixes everything in the world.

Con: The music wasn’t that great. I’m not a music expert, and maybe it’s just me, but I don’t feel like I’m going to be singing along to the soundtrack for the next twenty years like I have with the nineties classics. And while some people didn’t love the music in Tangled, I personally thought it was better than the music in Frozen. I will say props to Idina Menzel for having the best song, “Let it Go.”

Pro: No one gets married. When Anna tells Kristoff that she got engaged to Hans after knowing him for less than a day, he tells her she might be being hasty. He points out all sorts of valid reasons that challenge the notion that “true love” is all that matters: she doesn’t know his last name, she has never seen him eat before, and she doesn’t know if he picks his nose. In the end, the message seems to be that you should really get to know the people you date and build a relationship, rather than leaping into marriage.

Con:It’s a $10 ticket. In the end, I recommend going to see Frozen if you’re the kind of person who secretly or not-so-secretly indulges in Disney movies despite their problems. If you're not that kind of person, just stay home and watch The Princess Bride again.

Compare the lyrics of the music from Frozen from the lyrics of the music from Lion King. While Idina Menzel is extremely talented, the lyrics are just unsophisticated! "Let It Go" for example has individual lines here and there that are eloquent, but none of them work together to make a sophisticated song. Compare that to "Be Prepared" from Lion King. There is a theme to the lyrics and they evoke a personality. With "Let It Go", some of the lines are sophisticated while other are simple and pedestrian. I feel conflicted and uncomfortable listening to it. With a song that is supposed to sound strong, it feels like an 8th grader is singing about getting a later curfew. For a queen I'd expect her to not sound so awkward.

Thanks for this review, I'm always eager for a feminist critique of the movies my kids want to see. Re your last Con, a lot of your readers have girls at home! As a feminist mom, I found this to be a pretty good choice. I'm not a fan of Brave - there are good things about Merida, but she spends a good chunk of the movie conceiving and carrying out a plan to poison her mother. Ouch.
Frozen flies through the Bechdel test - which is a pretty low bar. I liked the ambiguity about what was going to happen with Elsa and with Hans. Real people are complicated. And we loved the music. Idina Menzel blows the roof off with "Let it Go" - my girls have been singing it all week. I'm particularly glad it's about sisters helping each other. Sisters, real ones, can have very complicated relationships.
I'll go on, as I am just way immersed in this milieu: If you want a cartoon exploring a complex relationship between two females that aren't related (well, not all that complicated, it's a kids' movie) try Barbie and the Diamond Castle. Good music, too. If you want female empowerment, try Cinderella 3 -- the best of the Cinderellas -- she has to find a way to turn her life around without magic or the fairy godmother.
I'm off topic, but maybe there are other feminist moms who are interested. Thanks again for the review!

In brave Merida had no intention to poison her mother, she was trying to find a way to change her mothers mind. She was devastated when the potion didn't do as she expected and subsequently did everything in her power to bring her mom back. And I might add, her intention to change her mothers mind was not malicious - she didn't want to be forced into a child marriage. I guess I'm simply perplexed by your reasoning. Perhaps it more of a personal dislike then that of a feminist critique?

You're correct that my dislike of Brave isn't necessarily a feminist critique - I just don't think girls should poison their mothers. By poison I mean, put a foreign substance in their food to change them. I think she could have come up with other options. Mom-daughter relationships are complicated, too, and I liked it that Merida and her mom worked things out in the end.
One of the things I find interesting about the reviews of Brave and Frozen from a feminist perspective is that they seem to assume that these are the only options out there for little girls looking for feminist role models. But that ignores the incredible efforts that the Barbie franchise -- yes Barbie -- and Tinkerbell franchise have been making to create female characters that are hard working, serious, resourceful, funny, and have good relationships with their friends. There are still issues -- everyone is wasp-waisted and they have trouble with diversity. But progress is better than no progress.

I'd recommend checking out some Ghibi movies, there are plenty feminist role models to be found there. Zero diversity though. And as far as diversity goes, I think Disney intentionally took some steps back. There were ethnic female side characters in the original story, that have now been replaced with Kistof, Olaf, the shop keeper, and trolls.

I liked some of Brave's premise. That a mother and daughter have to team up in order to overcome their personal conflicts and challenges posed by society, and grow as people in the process seemed fairly progressive given Disney's history. I've read other feminist critiques of Brave where the author and commenters spoke of how they cried just to watch a film where the mom (or mother figure) isn't dead, absent, or a villain as mothers typically are in Disney films. They acknowledged that the film was problematic, but were deeply touched just to be able to enjoy the mother-daughter relationship.

[potential spoilers - brief plot advancement discussion]
I think the real tragedy of Brave is that Merida, facing child marriage, feels compelled to take such drastic action against her mother. Merida lives in a society where her own bodily autonomy is/will be disrespected and violated. Elinor is someone who has internalized the messages of their society and so sadly, she becomes another obstacle for Merida. If I were in Merida's position and were her age (and therefore had her not-done-developing-and-unable-to-fully-grasp-longterm-consequences brain), then giving my mother a magic potion that would force her to become an ally in my struggle to protect my childhood/adolescence and right not to marry might seem reasonable - especially if I were unaware of what the actual result of said magic potion would be. Drugging your parents is wrong, yes! But planning to marry off your young child to a stranger (who may be abusive or who knows what) against the child's will is worse. (And besides, a child cannot consent to that.) For many girls of the past and present, drugging an adult to get away from an unwanted marriage may be the only way to escape.

What disturbed me far, far more than than the idea that Merida would accept a magical way out is that Merida and Elinor are placed in this patriarchal society where Merida, in order to save her mother, is at one point willing to give in the child marriage when she believes that's what she must do to restore her mom to human form. It was a painful dilemma to watch. Does Merida sacrifice her mom to save herself from forced child marriage? Or does Merida sacrifice herself to save the mother who has changed, but who forced Merida into this desperate situation in the first place? I liked Merida and Elinor both as characters, but when you think about the actual situation, it's a human rights/ethics nightmare. Perhaps Merida's resort to the witch's offer of a magic fix seems less creepy given what the actual outcome might be when a child is forced to choose whether they have to sacrifice themselves or someone who oppresses them. Granted, the character of Elinor is no child abuser! But in real life, the situation would be abusive.

I really wish that Brave's plot had included the mother-daughter pairing as the film's central relationship without the conflict between them. Maybe it could've been another clan's chief who insisted that Merida marry one of his sons for some sort of power alliance reason. Merida and Elinor escape to the woods together to think and plot. (Merida's dad, still kindly, is perhaps just struggling to stand up to the other chief's political threats and relying on his cleverer women relatives to come up with a time-buying and marriage-stopping plan.) They meet up with the helpful but comically inept forest witch, and intend for the magic potion to transform the opposing chief into a bear (and perhaps the spell can only be broken when he realizes the right of all girls and women to be independent). But the potion accidentally backfires. And now mother and daughter must work twice as hard, side by side, to defend one another while protecting Merida's right to remain unmarried until they can undo the potion's effect. This would pose the patriarchy as the main antagonist, but also allow for Merida's entire family to enjoy the loving relationships that we saw onscreen - except now Elinor gets to be a part of that. The jovial dad character and Merida's brothers wouldn't need to undergo any change - the humor and warmth of those relationships would remain. In the end, Elinor and Merida break the spell through some final act of solidarity, love, and bravery. The spell is then transferred to the opposing chief, and maybe there's a scene where he breaks the spell due to his enormous respect for Merida and Elinor when he learns during the film's climax what they went through to save each other and establish women's rights. The opposing chief is then seen declaring to his sons that he is ashamed of himself, wishes for them to learn from his mistake, and decrees that no one shall force girls/women to marry nor use girls/women as political pawns. He tells his sons to always to respect girls and women. His sons, setting a good example for boys in the movie's audience, are already of this mind and honored to take part in some traditional Scottish games alongside the women in a celebration of Merida and Elinor's strength and teamwork, everyone's personal growth, and the new friendships that've been made.

Okay, so that last part was just me daydreaming about what Brave could've been. Maybe someone will enjoy the proposed remake as much as I did, lol.

I actually was very pleased at Tangled's villain, a female. A fear of aging is a very real issue in society especially for empowered, self sufficient single women. According to society, its only ok if you also have your looks.

Mother Gothel's villianry revolved around a VERY female-centric trope: vanity. Yeah, you see this applied to male villains as well, but not nearly as often.

Doubly so, the hero of the story is a girl who subscribes to every single standard of classic American beauty. Thin, cisgender, able-bodied, blonde, white, traditionally feminine, while Mother Gothel is a coded foreigner with dark curly hair...yeah, no unfortunate implications there.

The fear of aging in single women (or, really, all women) is due to unrealistic standards fed to them since day one by a male-centric society that thrives on making women insecure. Tangled did nothing to actually challenge that: it's just a traditionally pretty woman defeating a traditionally 'other' woman (don't get me started on the Romani stereotypes...). If anything, it actually REINFORCED what you said: "It's only okay if you have your looks."

Can you elaborate on why you're pleased? It seems like most Disney villains are women - wicked witches and stepmothers. Now that I'm in their demographic I find myself sympathizing with some of them. But I couldn't find much redeeming in Mother Gothel, a brainwashing kidnapper.

I agree with your list of pros and cons, and I also agree with the previous commenter who had issues with Brave (I think Merida should have realized that changing HER destiny should not have included poisoning/drugging/etc. her MOTHER), but I can't believe no one's mentioned the character of Olaf!

I so wanted to hate him because I hate cutesy little sidekicks, but I found that, despite my prejudice, I actually liked him! I thought his song about seeing the summer was so funny I had to put my hands over my mouth to stifle my laughter so I wouldn't bother my family. Loved him!

I think it is just you in terms of the music. "Let it Go" was phenomenal and "For the First Time in Forever" was a great musical number. Plus "In Summer" with Olaf was hilarious. This film can easily be converted to a broadway show, and to be fair to the other musicals, other than Beauty and the Beast, how many of the songs other than the main one (Under the Sea, A Whole New World, I'll Make a Man out of You) can you name from each film?

Circle of Life
Hakuna Matata
Can You Feel The Love Tonight
I Just Cant Wait To Be King

Colors Of The Wind
Just Around The River Bend
Steady As A Beating Drum

You've Got A Friend In Me

Reflection
I'll Make A Man Out Of You
A Girl Worth Fighting For

Be Our Guest
Belle

Baby Mine
when I See An Elephant fly
Casey Junior

Cinderella
A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
So This Is Love

The Second Star To The Right
Following the Leader

I Wanna Be Like You

Best Of Friends

I OWN almost every Disney Movie on VHS and have most of the ones only released on dvd. So i own almost the Whole Disney Collection. I KNOW the songs in every movie, and can sing along to them. my children i hope will lovve the movies just as much as i do.

And i think that Let It Go is such an amazing and powerful song. Do You Wanna Build A Snowman brought me to tears and Summer is such a humorous song. i beleive Disney did a good job on this movie!

I figured the "sappy song" between Kristoff and Anna was "fixer upper", which I think was a bit better than having them actually sing song together in harmony, because their relationship contradicts the previous "Disney standard"... but also THANK YOU for mentioning that the music was... "eh". It seemed very strange to have the songwriter of Avenue Q and Book of Mormon try and tackle a children's film, although clearly a few reviewers were smitten by "let it go" and etc... but my friend who saw it with me also felt that they were really charmless or unmemorable songs (did Anna need to mention feeling gassy in a song?). I can name songs from Mulan, Aladdin, The Lion King despite not watching them for years, but I honestly can't hum any tunes from Tangled or Frozen (one was about building a snowman.......being compatible.... something about summer....he's a fixer upper something something.....let it go just...let it go?)

Surely it cannot count as a love triangle when no one is actually in love yet and one angle of the tri isn't even self-deluded about it?

(I hate love triangles with the passion of a thousand shrinking white dwarf stars. I wouldn't have been able to sit through Frozen if that in-universe-acknowledged effed-uppery had registered with me as one. :D )

As a woman who has found myself in lifelong scrapes and misunderstandings due to a lack of being cheerleader-perky, told to "smile" by strangers and informed I have something called "resting bitchface," I have to take mild issue with the idea that Elsa is "not characterized." Introversion, shyness, and/or reserve are characteristics -- how much more so introversion that is chosen on purpose as a protection and defense?

(I spoil, below.)

What do we know about either sister, really, concretely? We know that they are naturally playful, that they love each other to bits, that they like chocolate, and that they are generally decent people. That's it. We see Anna sojourning forth to save her sister one day (two tops), an obviously brave act requiring a great deal of strength, but how can we miss that Elsa has basically artificially remade herself over into an introvert over the course of her entire youth, and how much strength it took to maintain that? Her very body language speaks to this effort -- her clothing choices from neck to toe, the way she keeps her hands close to her sides or folded about her body, the fact that she remains sequestered in her room for three years beyond her parent's deaths, well past the point at which their edict on her has dissolved. They shape her, of course, but understands, and agrees, and she embraces it out of love for and fear for her sister. (This is not to put down Anna's spur of the moment bravery either -- she spends *her* childhood unflaggingly trying to reach out to her sister, just as Elsa spends hers unflaggingly trying to protect Anna.)

As this is a musical, song is characterization as well -- look at "Let It Go" (no less characterization for Elsa than "Snowman" is for Anna), even aside from the lyrics -- the body language, when the real person Elsa has been all along comes out, when she casts off the cage she has made of her own body. She feels safe only when she is alone, has isolated herself enough not to be a danger to anyone. What she creates is beautiful and fancy, but also a clear reflection of the castle she has left behind. Look at the clothing she creates for herself, free and playful and finally un-zipped up. How she finally discovers motion and looseness in her body, swinging her hips not for the benefit of any princely suitors, but just for herself, just to *move*.

And both sisters have a character arc, a lesson to internalize that shapes them into different people by the end. Elsa's lesson is arguably more internal and self-realized -- Anna is told repeatedly by others that infatuation is nothing to base a lifelong relationship on, and comes to realize that her longing for her sister cannot be replaced by forcing a romance with the first dude that happens by. But Elsa learns on her own that the love she has for her sister is a fuel for her powers every bit as strong as her negative emotions have been, and that she doesn't have to be a danger to her land or loved ones after all, that she is, in fact, in control of her destiny.

I think the "being saved by a man" parts are exaggerated, too. Kristof helps Anna out -- because it is an extremely wise thing, no matter who you are, to hire someone to take you through the snowy mountains if you are not and have no reason to be familiar with snowy mountains. People -- even experienced people! -- die out there all the time in the real world. Good for the kids to know. But the real, plot-important, death-defying saving is done by the sisters. Anna saves Elsa from beheading, and Elsa turns around and saves Anna from freezing. Everything else is diversion and sleight-of-hand in service of the "twist." (Which I saw coming because I read "The School of Good and Evil" by Soman Chainani for my niece, which is a wonderful book. Not perfect, but wonderful. :-D :-D)

(Also, Elsa's magic is explained -- her parents explain to the trolls that she is not cursed; it is a gift she was born with. It was not seen as a negative, dangerous if sloppily used, as any strong power would be, but ultimately merely a talent to be mastered, until she struck her sister in the eyes by accident. It doesn't feel plot-holey to me to find magic as a given at any particular point in the Disneyverse.)

All that said -- I did spend nearly the entire first twenty minutes of the film literally hiding my face behind my scarf in embarrassment, even though I knew all the wuvvy duvvy was a diversion. I think it was a bit uneven (where, in my opinion, Tangled was a smoother, more cohesive production -- as was Brave, although it contained worse people, I think). So it took me quite a while to warm up to this film -- so to speak! But now I'm warmed.

While I can agree that Merida didn't intend to turn her mother into a bear, I find it undeniable that she did fully intend to ROOFIE her mother in order to bend Elinor to her will, which is not cool under any sky. I find Brave goes down better with me when I consider Elinor the protagonist and Merida half an unwitting mentor and half an obstacle to be overcome on the way to Elinor's growth, though not a villain, as they do learn lessons from one another and they do come to terms. And, well, the fact that they love each other deeply and are not actually terrible people, of course.

Maybe what I mean is Merida not as obstacle but as...a path to self-actualization for Elinor, a heroic trial to be negotiated, or negotiated with. (Isn't there some Arthurian knight or Chaucerian dude who has to become a speechless creature for a while in order to become a better human being later on? Or maybe Nebuchadnezzar? Classic rite of passage. No reason for rites of passage to be restricted to the young, after all.)

Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE Merida (and Merida's hair), but I'm not ultimately on her side. Or more precisely, I am not, in the end, on board with her path as it is written. (I'm always one to blame the writers instead of the actors, or "actors," for what it's worth.)

What I'm saying is I prefer the personal growth Elinor underwent, and lessons she learned -- about loosening up, and listening, and adaptability in the face of change and to extreme circumstances, and the joys of horseback riding and arrow shooting -- to Merida's lessons about how proper ladylike posture and good diction can inspire good behavior in ruffians (yeah, right). Merida's power to command her father's subjects and allies comes from her relationship to her father, NOT, as it seems the story would have us believe, from her newly straight spine. "You too can broker peace if your father is king!" is not an empowering message! The forced-marriage thing seems like authorial diversion -- not dealt with coherently -- not even dealt with. Just postponed. According to the text as given, Merida's desire to not get married at all is never validated -- understandable according to the times, but still, it is not really addressed that in the end Merida is still a person who does not want to get married. And why do her marriage plans *have* to be the focus of the story? (Compare "How to Train Your Dragon" -- and consider how little, if any, of the plot would have had to change if Hiccup had been a girl.)

Frozen isn't perfect, nor is it my favorite, but it does do me the favor of being about something completely other than "how to be a girl properly" yet again.

I feel that, if indeed her father had ice powers similar to Elsa, then he possibly could have avoided, say, the capsizing of his ship? I mean, he could have frozen the vicinity, an act reminiscent of Else's freezing Arendelle and the fjord. More importantly however, I very much doubt that he would have need the guidance of the trolls for how to find the cure to young Anna being hit by Elsa's snow magic. It can be said that he would have most likely needed their help anyway, but, if her father were experienced with the powers of ice, he would have realized its dangerous potential long before this unfortunate situation arose, and prevented its occurrence. Simply put, he would have had Elsa cut herself off from the outside world before she could have hurt her sister.

Note: after just re-watching the scene where the family asks the trolls for help, I realize that not a single time does her father wear gloves, something Elsa desperately needs to keep her powers in check, and, after re-watching "Do you want to build a snowman", that Elsa is afraid of hurting her parents with her own ice magic, which, theoretically, shouldn't have affected her father if he was gifted with the same abilities. After all, Elsa is immune to the physical cold (The cold doesn't bother me anyway), right?

I feel that the ice trail from behind them is Elsa's doing. It's more probable that movie is using the trail to show Elsa losing control over her powers, a method of conveying her distress over Anna's condition, as well as the guilt that haunts her throughout her adolescence to her coming of age. Sorry to rain on your parade, but I doubt Elsa inherited her gift from her father.

Her father said it to the trolls herself, Elsa's ice power was something she was born with. The only reason why she keeps calling it as a "curse" when she got older was because of the incident that almost killed her sister. That and what the elder troll had said about Elsa's powers being capable of great beauty AND great danger (and subsequently warning her that fear will be her enemy) had made such a strong impression on young Elsa. It was from that moment on that it was ingrained in her head that what she had and who she was a threat to the people around her, and so she lived in constant fear, trying to hide her true self from the world, setting off the vicious cycle. It eventually conditions her to believe that what she was and the powers that she had were a "curse" that had befallen her, when, in fact, she was simply born this way.

This is why, to a great deal of people, her ice powers resonate as a kind of queer metaphor to the LGBT folk. This is also why Frozen has a great plot imo. It's so beautifully done that the iconic song "Let it Go" becomes an expression of that struggle and journey to learning to love yourself for who you are no matter if other people around you make you feel otherwise.

Also the King do say to Elsa "conceal it, Don't feel it, Don't let it show" and in Let it go she sings "Conceal it, Don't feel it, Don't let them know" which means that Elsa misunderstood her fathers words into that she should hide her powers when he meant that she should get used to them and not think about them.

I'm SO glad someone agrees! I'm a musician, so I really, REALLY didn't like the songs- it doesn't have the Menken magic! The songs were very "broadway" sounding, which meant that they felt like they didn't fit the snowy scenery of a royal kingdom. Elsa's song in the mountains begins with a piano accompaniment- it sounded strange and out of place. The chord progressions were also very "broadway" sounding and not very magical, just brassy and out of place. I don't even want to talk about the lyrics- the use of "totally" every two seconds sounded cheap and rough and out of place too. Just because they use words like "totally" and "like" in the songs doesn't mean it will connect with the younger public, it just songs clumsy! I didn't like the rhyme as well, and the songs were mostly "belting" songs and all very loud. I really, really wish Menken made the music and Stephen Schwartz the lyrics, it would be a totally different movie!

However, the scenery was very beautiful, but yes, I really wish Elsa had a better character, she was just depressing. Although it was a good point to teach people not to trust someone just because of their title or looks- they might be a hidden villain! lol! I really loved Kristen Bell's voice, didn't like Menzel's voice very much- if the songs were better, oh my!

Thanks for stating your point of view! I hope the next Disney film will be with Menken!!!!

Yes I agree, the songs were very "Broadway" sounding. In my opinion though, I thought that the songs were good, catchy, and had a nice message. But hey, just my opinion. Frozen actually is going to be made into a musical on Broadway so they most likely were trying to save the extra work of adapting the songs for Broadway and just putting them Broadway-ready into the movie.

Literally none of this comment makes sense. Since when has Disney's musical oeuvre NOT been Broadway-styled? I'm confused by your insistence that the music would have been super different if Menken had written it; his work has ALWAYS been blatantly Broadway. If "Belle" and "Part of Your World" aren't Broadway, then what are they? Electropop? And if you know anything about this type of music then you ought to know that it's all about belting. If a performer can't belt, they'll never get anywhere in musical theater, end of story. I really don't think you have any idea what you're talking about.

It's fine not to like Broadway music, but it is preposterous to say you dislike the Frozen soundtrack on the basis that you enjoy the music from other Disney movies more. ???? It's the same kind of music?????

Humorous and unexpectedly modern usage in their lyrics is a fundamental component of the Lopez/Anderson-Lopez style. It's not for everyone, and sometimes I find it a bit irritating too, but it is what it is. Disney movies have always adhered to their era in dialogue style and speech modes, so I don't understand why you're so surprised that they continued to do so with this film. I mean, I'm not sure how Anna singing "There'll be actual, real live people" is any worse than Rapunzel going "Sweep again, and by then / It's, like, 7:15".

It is your choice not to like Elsa, but I must say I find it pretty telling that you use that particular phrase to describe your dislike for the one positively-portrayed Disney princess who happens to have the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Her story is all about female empowerment and combating fear to embrace your strengths, and if you find that depressing I shudder to think what types of narratives you find enjoyable.

Literally none of this comment makes sense. Since when has Disney's musical oeuvre NOT been Broadway-styled? I'm confused by your insistence that the music would have been super different if Menken had written it; his work has ALWAYS been blatantly Broadway. If "Belle" and "Part of Your World" aren't Broadway, then what are they? Electropop? And if you know anything about this type of music then you ought to know that it's all about belting. If a performer can't belt, they'll never get anywhere in musical theater, end of story. I really don't think you have any idea what you're talking about.

It's fine not to like Broadway music, but it is preposterous to say you dislike the Frozen soundtrack on the basis that you enjoy the music from other Disney movies more. ???? It's the same kind of music?????

Humorous and unexpectedly modern usage in their lyrics is a fundamental component of the Lopez/Anderson-Lopez style. It's not for everyone, and sometimes I find it a bit irritating too, but it is what it is. Disney movies have always adhered to their era in dialogue style and speech modes, so I don't understand why you're so surprised that they continued to do so with this film. I mean, I'm not sure how Anna singing "There'll be actual, real live people" is any worse than Rapunzel going "Sweep again, and by then / It's, like, 7:15".

It is your choice not to like Elsa, but I must say I find it pretty telling that you use that particular phrase to describe your dislike for the one positively-portrayed Disney princess who happens to have the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Her story is all about female empowerment and combating fear to embrace your strengths, and if you find that depressing I shudder to think what types of narratives you find enjoyable.

I keep thinking to myself, really? Everyone just loves the singing in Frozen, and heaven help any one who thinks otherwise. Then throw in some feminist and equality garble to justify why any other opinion is just not credible. I personally don't follow their views in the matter. Maybe my opinion is based on the fact I only listened to the movie while my kids watched it. I feel that the impact of the climatic scene effects the way one hears the singing.

I can't say I love the singing in the earlier Disney days, but I can agree that they were made in a time when that style was popular. This movie, I cringed at times when Ann's character hit some of the higher notes. The lower ones, she sounded fine to me, but take for example "Love Is An Open Door." I was fine until that last "Door" or two was sung out. I think the male singer dampened some of the noise but I still felt as though I was gnawing on a wool mitten at times with Kristen Bell's singing. Sorry to offend the Veronica Mars Fanbrats out there.

And here it comes, Idina Mendez great in Glee, but I couldn't get past the nasaled way her singing sounded. I was starting to think that Elsa was having some serious sinus issues because she sounded really stuffed up when she was singing. I couldn't associate the character with the singing.

In the end, my daughter likes- Scratch that. Loves the movie and is currently engaging in it everyday. Can't help it. It is still snowing in MN and currently running out of creative ideas and things to do. Feel like Rapunzel in her tower. So, until Minnesota finally recognizes the other seasons of the year, I will have to mourn the sudden, expected and yet unexpected loss of the DVD Player.

This film was just awful. That's all there is to it. If Walt Disney could see it himself, I am positive he would have said the same thing. Here we have a film about a magical princess who can create ice castles with a swish of her hand, rock gnomes who can alter memories, and a walking, talking snowman, all that, and this movie has NO MAGIC! NONE! The characters are flat as pancakes. They are boring and shallow and annoying. The whole point of Disney is that it is magical, it is fanciful, its unrealistic! That's what fantasy stories are! They are unrealistic! Why do we always have to shove our own insecurities and faults into ever nook and cranny we can find? Why do we have to create a silly, clumsy princess who drools on her pillow? Because she is relateable? Who cares if she is relateable. Its a fantasy! She can be as pretty and perfect and unrealistic as she wants. You know why? BECAUSE IT'S FANTASY!!!!! Why must we become so vain that all things must be created in our own image? Are we so broken that we can't allow a little bit of drama and magic into our lives. Isn't that what Disney movies are for? And I know what you must think.... little girls need to know that its ok for them not to look and act just like the perfect princesses that they are bombarded with all day long! Well perhaps we should turn to celebrity culture instead of animation for that one? Airbrushed and photo-shopped women being heralded as the perfect specimens of the female kind are probably far more influential than a 2D drawing..... just a guess. I do not believe that any young girl truly wants to look like Cinderella. Cinderella is a cartoon, an image, and believe it or not, children can tell the difference between cartoons and real life. Also, children don't care if their princess is realistic, or feminist, or logical, they just care that she is pretty, and sings nice songs, and gets the handsome prince at he end. Yes, it's a formula, yes, its far-fetched and even a little shallow, but if your child is not smart enough to understand the difference between a cartoon fantasy world and the real world, than you have a much larger problem.
Anyway...... besides all that, (Losing our beloved, simple fantasy Disney formula, I mean) the music in this film was horrid! The song, "Let it Go" which everyone seems to be in love with, was a high-pitched and badly worded, screechy mess sung by a woman, who when singing live, can barely carry a tune. I had never heard a single off note sung in a Disney film until I heard that song. APPALLING!
In addition to the music being poorly constructed, the film also lacked completeness, richness, and general attention to detail. Snow White was in production for five years. FIVE YEARS. Millions of sketches were created for Snow White, and each individual frame of the film was drawn and colored by hand. That is attention to detail. That is a labor of love. That film is timeless and unlike anything else. Frozen, will not be held to such a standard of love and admiration. It is a slap-dash, thrown-together piece of feminist junk that was released before anyone had a chance to make it decent, just in time for the holidays, oh joy.
By the way, I think it is entirely possible to create interesting and inspiring female characters in fantasy films without making them into drooling, whining idiots. Disney has already done it, in fact. Mulan, Belle, Ariel, Pocahontas, all free-thinking, strong women with opinions, hobbies, belief systems, good morals, and compelling story-lines. Perhaps Disney's crew should take a look at the marvelous work they have done in the past and take a step back towards that.

Whoa whoa whoa...I agree that the songs were not all that great, but Idina Menzel is a fantastic singer.I am a professional musician and I really don't see where she sang off-tune.
Though I agree that the songs were not very good, except for "Build a Snowman".

On the part about inspiring female characters that don't whine the list you constructed doesn't accurately fit the "no whining" policy. You see, Ariel whined the whole movie about how she wanted to live on land because she believed "the seaweed is greener on the other side" and she even gave up a piece of her that was important to Ursula for a boy. She was extremely whiny throughout the film and gave both Sebastian and her father a major migraine.
Personally I believe there was magic( I believe having ice powers is pretty magical) and the characters did have personality. Olaf was a cute, adorable snowman who was a bit naive and ignorant but he provided laughs here and there. Kristoff was unusual but unique and that provided a different point of view seeing how his best friend was a reindeer and he lived with trolls. I believe that the princesses give little children the same happiness they may get from Belle but yes, they do represent real life females a bit but people like someone they can relate to and I'm pretty sure most girls don't wake up looking perfect.
I've noticed many children running around singing songs from Frozen recently and having fun doing so, so obviously the songs were appealing to the children and will remain in their heads for a while. Disney, believe it or not, tries to draw in children before adults so if they can see children singing Frozen songs and enjoying it then Disney believes they did their job.
Every Disney princess has flaws and a lot of them change their beliefs for a man or have their whole life devoted to finding that one man. I believe Frozen did a good job of not having that but still having romance play a part. Frozen was, at least to me, a very good movie and it brought in more children so it did what it was created to do.

i beleive that the "drooling on the pillow, hair all a mess" part was supposed to be humorous. the line right before that was two men talking about how they thought the princesses would be gorgeous. then cut to drooling princess. yes, funny.

The movie IS WORTH SEEING!!!
For the annoying love triangles, it's even more annoying if Kristoff and Anna have more love scenes together.
It's interesting how Kristoff is not exactly love at first sight! Listen to the music again, and you WILL LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, I really wanted to like this film but it proved in vain. It wasn't memorable as most Disney films, and the song? Let's just say, I wasn't fan after all. With all the great reviews, I thought it would be great movie. Turns out, it wasn't. I still believe "Tangled" had a better storyline and better songs than "Frozen". With all the praises and accolade, I still didn't see the "magic" they spoke/wrote about. This, however, is my opinion. I don't mean to offend anyone who think differently. These are my thoughts on the film. Please don't take any offense.

You said "Elsa has a curse (not very well explained)" and mentioned it again later, it wasn't well explained because at the beginning of the movie it tells you that Elsa was not cursed but born with the powers when the trolls ask this very thing, and if she was born with the powers, it could realistically be genetic.
I agree with most of your pros and cons, except I love the music, it is a movie designed for children, and the characters are teenage girls, and the emotion is what counts, so the lyrics don't necessarily need sophistication. Personally I haven't been able to get them out of my head, but it's all personal opinion.
In terms of feminism I agree that Ana needed Kristophe's help, but that was not based on his gender, it was based on the fact that he had more experience, so she was being sensible, and in many ways he needed her equally.
I liked the way that the relationship between Ana and Kristophe was relatively realistic and fun to watch, they were friends before they were lovers.
I also loved the way that Elsa was a disney princess (or queen even) who did not need a prince to help her rule, or be loved by her subjects, and the way that she reached self-acceptance and happiness without the notion of romantic love involved.

You said "Elsa has a curse (not very well explained)" and mentioned it again later, it wasn't well explained because at the beginning of the movie it tells you that Elsa was not cursed but born with the powers when the trolls ask this very thing, and if she was born with the powers, it could realistically be genetic.
I agree with most of your pros and cons, except I love the music, it is a movie designed for children, and the characters are teenage girls, and the emotion is what counts, so the lyrics don't necessarily need sophistication. Personally I haven't been able to get them out of my head, but it's all personal opinion.
In terms of feminism I agree that Ana needed Kristophe's help, but that was not based on his gender, it was based on the fact that he had more experience, so she was being sensible, and in many ways he needed her equally.
I liked the way that the relationship between Ana and Kristophe was relatively realistic and fun to watch, they were friends before they were lovers.
I also loved the way that Elsa was a disney princess (or queen even) who did not need a prince to help her rule, or be loved by her subjects, and the way that she reached self-acceptance and happiness without the notion of romantic love involved.

Um... you're wrong, sorry.
The plot makes enough sense. It's a Disney movie, you need to approach these fantasy movies with a sense of poetic faith and suspend your disbelief... there's magic because there's magic. It was also unnecessary to explain why the trolls were love experts and it would have made the movie worse. I would also like to hear who specifically was underdeveloped as a character and why you feel that way. The characters all had understandable motives and personalities unless they were minor characters that were used to progress the story. In fact, Elsa is probably one of the best written Disney characters out there. Just look at Disney movies objectively and compare the characters... you'll see what I mean.
Also... I'm not sure what your definition of a "love triangle" is but this certainly wasn't one... it also wasn't pushed or obnoxious. Kristoff obviously cared for Anna but he never acted on those things or "professed his love" to her as is a staple for "annoying love triangles" - hell, the guy even rushed her to her "true love" when Anna got hit by Elsa's magic. It wasn't until Hans was effectively removed from any kind of relationship with Anna that Kristoff even made an overt romantic gesture to her.
As far as the music goes, you already admitted to this but if you thought the music was bad then your knowledge of musical composition is very lacking ("bad" is not the same as "I didn't like it"). The music was very beautifully crafted and the harmonizing vocals was great.
And all I can do is laugh at your last "con" being the 10 dollar movie ticket. You know that's not a criticism of the movie, right?

Um... you're wrong, sorry.
The plot makes enough sense. It's a Disney movie, you need to approach these fantasy movies with a sense of poetic faith and suspend your disbelief... there's magic because there's magic. It was also unnecessary to explain why the trolls were love experts and it would have made the movie worse. I would also like to hear who specifically was underdeveloped as a character and why you feel that way. The characters all had understandable motives and personalities unless they were minor characters that were used to progress the story. In fact, Elsa is probably one of the best written Disney characters out there. Just look at Disney movies objectively and compare the characters... you'll see what I mean.
Also... I'm not sure what your definition of a "love triangle" is but this certainly wasn't one... it also wasn't pushed or obnoxious. Kristoff obviously cared for Anna but he never acted on those things or "professed his love" to her as is a staple for "annoying love triangles" - hell, the guy even rushed her to her "true love" when Anna got hit by Elsa's magic. It wasn't until Hans was effectively removed from any kind of relationship with Anna that Kristoff even made an overt romantic gesture to her.
As far as the music goes, you already admitted to this but if you thought the music was bad then your knowledge of musical composition is very lacking ("bad" is not the same as "I didn't like it"). The music was very beautifully crafted and the harmonizing vocals was great.
And all I can do is laugh at your last "con" being the 10 dollar movie ticket. You know that's not a criticism of the movie, right?

To be honest I disagree with a lot of the 'cons' stated above. The curse was evidently a trait she'd inherited, since she had it from birth, in which case we're required to use our knowledge of genetics and assume that these ice powers had previously been in the family. Filling in those details weren't necessary at all on terms of character development or even plot to be honest. How she got the powers doesn't change anything. And on terms of the trolls, why does this need to be questioned? Disney movies always feature mysterious creatures who have been around for centuries and seem to have knowledge humans don't. Why should they need to further explain it in this case? They're just mythical beings.
Also, wow, the other characters aren't very well developed? I particularly disagree in the instance of Elsa. Out of all of the characters in the movie, I probably liked her most and understood her most deeply. She cares very much for others and, knowing the risk her powers present, isolates herself from others as much as possible - purely out of selflessness. She doesn't want to be alone, she just wants to protect people. I'd say that this is a very strong example of her character.
The same also applies for Kristoff, he's entirely selfless when it comes to what's best for Anna, but is also shown to be unusually blunt (due to his being raised by trolls and lack of awareness of standard social protocol).
The comment 'the music wasn't that great' honestly just made me feel annoyed. Sure, that may be your opinion, but it's not review-worthy. The point of a review is to mention relevant information, and I really think that your lack of appreciation for a beautiful soundtrack does not apply here. The writer of the soundtrack also developed the songs of two broadway musicals, 'Wicked' and 'The Book of Mormon', grossing millions in revenue. On top of that, the 'Frozen' soundtrack has already sold over one million copies since its release, so I quite believe that renders your 'con' invalid.
I'm sorry to sound like a bitch, but you're kind of being one.

I know what you're trying to say. To be honest, I'm disappointed with this movie. This isn't worth being compared with Tangled. Tangled is a hundred times better. There are several reasons it doesn't leave much impression for me
1/ The songs aren't that good. Talking about Disney movie, the songs are what I look forward to the most but except
for "Let it go", I don't like any of the songs here.
2/ The plot isn't very impressive.It lacks some spice and conflicts to excite the viewers and draw them in.
3/ The male characters' design. I'm sorry but they clearly weren't trying to make a good-looking character here.
4/ The characters' personalities aren't very well depicted. Unlike other movie where the main characters' personality
is very distinct and unique, and very lovable too. But with this movie, I just can't fall in love with any character. Maybe
because the movie is too short for so many characters. They didn't spend much time telling us about the character
rather than just what they did.
5/ I have some issue with this girl Anna. Her attitude is not consistent. One time she was all "I believe in sister.
She would never hurt me" and 'I love my sister", the other time she was like:
"Elsa struck me with her power."
"But you said she would never hurt you."
"I was wrong."
What is this girl saying? Can't she see that it was an accident? Elsa didn't even know about it. Elsa kept telling her
to stay away many times fearing that she would hurt her sister. There is no way Anna didn't hear that. If she really
loves her sister, she should believe in her till the end instead of making her sound like some villain.

Other than those, I would have to disagree with you in some points. I don't think they need a reason for Elsa's power. It's not a curse. It's a power she was born with and Anna doesn't necessarily have to have it too just because she is Elsa's sister. The rock trolls don't need a reason to exist also. This is a fairy tale. Mythical creatures aren't that rare, are they? Have you ever questioned why there are dwarves in Snow White or why there are fairies and dragons in Sleeping Beauty?

Well that's pretty much everything. This isn't really a bad movie. It's just that all the previous movies are so outstanding that they offset it that's all. However, everybody's opinions differ. You have to try to know if you like it or not.

I know what you're trying to say. To be honest, I'm disappointed with this movie. This isn't worth being compared with Tangled. Tangled is a hundred times better. There are several reasons it doesn't leave much impression for me
1/ The songs aren't that good. Talking about Disney movie, the songs are what I look forward to the most but except
for "Let it go", I don't like any of the songs here.
2/ The plot isn't very impressive.It lacks some spice and conflicts to excite the viewers and draw them in.
3/ The male characters' design. I'm sorry but they clearly weren't trying to make a good-looking character here.
4/ The characters' personalities aren't very well depicted. Unlike other movie where the main characters' personality
is very distinct and unique, and very lovable too. But with this movie, I just can't fall in love with any character. Maybe
because the movie is too short for so many characters. They didn't spend much time telling us about the character
rather than just what they did.
5/ I have some issue with this girl Anna. Her attitude is not consistent. One time she was all "I believe in sister.
She would never hurt me" and 'I love my sister", the other time she was like:
"Elsa struck me with her power."
"But you said she would never hurt you."
"I was wrong."
What is this girl saying? Can't she see that it was an accident? Elsa didn't even know about it. Elsa kept telling her
to stay away many times fearing that she would hurt her sister. There is no way Anna didn't hear that. If she really
loves her sister, she should believe in her till the end instead of making her sound like some villain.

Other than those, I would have to disagree with you in some points. I don't think they need a reason for Elsa's power. It's not a curse. It's a power she was born with and Anna doesn't necessarily have to have it too just because she is Elsa's sister. The rock trolls don't need a reason to exist also. This is a fairy tale. Mythical creatures aren't that rare, are they? Have you ever questioned why there are dwarves in Snow White or why there are fairies and dragons in Sleeping Beauty?

Well that's pretty much everything. This isn't really a bad movie. It's just that all the previous movies are so outstanding that they offset it that's all. However, everybody's opinions differ. You have to try to know if you like it or not.

I know what you're trying to say. To be honest, I'm disappointed with this movie. This isn't worth being compared with Tangled.
Tangled is a hundred times better. There are several reasons it doesn't leave much impression for me
1/ The songs aren't that good. Talking about Disney movie, the songs are what I look forward to the most but except
for "Let it go", I don't like any of the songs here.
2/ The plot isn't very impressive.It lacks some spice and conflicts to excite the viewers and draw them in.
3/ The male characters' design. I'm sorry but they clearly weren't trying to make a good-looking character here.
4/ The characters' personalities aren't very well depicted. Unlike other movie where the main characters' personality
is very distinct and unique, and very lovable too. But with this movie, I just can't fall in love with any character. Maybe
because the movie is too short for so many characters. They didn't spend much time telling us about the character
rather than just what they did.
5/ I have some issue with this girl Anna. Her attitude is not consistent. One time she was all "I believe in sister.
She would never hurt me" and 'I love my sister", the other time she was like:
"Elsa struck me with her power."
"But you said she would never hurt you."
"I was wrong."
What is this girl saying? Can't she see that it was an accident? Elsa didn't even know about it. Elsa kept telling her
to stay away many times fearing that she would hurt her sister. There is no way Anna didn't hear that. If she really
loves her sister, she should believe in her till the end instead of making her sound like some villain.

Other than those, I would have to disagree with you in some points. I don't think they need a reason for Elsa's power.
It's not a curse. It's a power she was born with and Anna doesn't necessarily have to have it too just because she is Elsa's sister. The rock trolls don't need a reason to exist also. This is a fairy tale. Mythical creatures aren't that rare, are they? Have you ever questioned why there are dwarves in Snow White or why there are fairies and dragons in Sleeping Beauty?

Well that's pretty much everything. This isn't really a bad movie. It's just that all the previous movies are so outstanding that they offset it that's all. However, everybody's opinions differ. You have to try to know if you like it or not.

I did not like this movie because the two girls are extremely sexualized, the way they move it's too suggestive (ice princess). In addition, at the end, the ice princess is wearing high heels on ice. Seriously. Plus, the trolls just seemed like an attempt to fill up empty space and I don't really think the animation was great because most of the scenes are just the same, there's no background that differentiates.

This movie was crap, The Lion King is 1000 times better, this movie is so over rated and theres so much hype over it it's getting over the top, i was bored the whole time i dont get why people are going crazy over it, it will NEVER live up to The Lion King!. Lion King is the best Disney movie ever! -

This article is terrible. And I disagree with you, because I believe that the songs in Tangled were weak, but when I watched Frozen for the 4th time, I start to notice that the singers have strong voices (not as in attitude but as in power through their voices) that make the music more amazing and memorable and catchy (cause I cannot stop singing "Love is an open door", Let it go", and "Do you want to build a snowman"). This is my opinion, so I'm sorry if you don't agree with me.

I just can't believe you don't like the music. How on earth can't "Do you wanna build a snowman?" get stuck in your head? I also disagree on the characters not being well developed, they perhaps could be more developed but they aren't neglected.

Eg, Kristoff singing to his Reigndeer (Sven), and having the reigndeer tell him that people are horrible but smell nicer than reigndeer. And his troll family says a lot about him too.

I disagree. The soundtrack was really good and from my experiences a lot of people really enjoyed it. Tangled was a good movie but frozen did a lot better. I agree they needed more back story on Elsa but overall the movie was great and I hope they do end up coming out with a sequel that explains a little more about Elsa's past and finds her a true love. Let's just hope they don't mess it up

I had a problem with Elsa not having a prince. I know she is a queen and the last thing she needs is a guy taking over as king,but why can't a powerful woman have her Prince. Is that What we want to teach our kids. A woman in power can't have her happy ending? Anna is week minded and wants to marry the first guy she meets and still finds a Prince. It's a princess movie I need some love for everyone, not just sister love. Idk I might be just pregnant with crazy emotions and thoughts lol

I.K.R., I don't think its fair.Here's Elsa, all sad and alone, and then here's Anna with a super cute prince AND a super cute ice worker. I personally don't its fair, and you usually don't expect that from a Disney movie. But I also don't agree with the con about the music. It was great! I can't get the song "Let it go" out of my head. That's just my personal opinion. Bye!

Frozen is not worth seeing. AT ALL. On a good day, I could give it a 2/10.
Tangled, on the other hand, gets a 10/10 from me and beats out Frozen any day.
Frozen's songs (yes, even Let It Go) were unoriginal and quite dull. My younger siblings seemed to think so too. Also, I prefer Mandy Moore's clear, sweet voice to Idina Menzel's nasal voice. Idina Menzel was just not right to play Elsa (I mean, I get that she was the back-up/replacement, but they should have picked someone else). Elsa ended up looking like she was 20 and sounding like she was old enough to be Anna's mom.
Tangled's plot was also better. The characters were much better developed and you could really connect with them. Furthermore, the morals in Frozen were absolutely terrible (trolls: "Anna, just marry this other guy you've only known for two days even though you're engaged to another man".... okay then).

Thanks for sharing your interesting comments on Frozen. Personally I loved the movie and have seen it many times (mostly on airplanes, but I purchased it recently). I also have an extensive Disney collection, though I admit to little interest in the recent movies - and I wouldn't have seen this one but for my 13-year old nieces recommendation (she said it was the best Disney movie ever & she didn't connect with the premise of Brave).

for me, the pros include tackling a hugely convoluted Hans Christian Anderson fable with a modern twist. The Snow Queen is almost always evil in every incarnation of this tale (including the derivative C. S. Lewis' Lion, Witch & Wardrobe.) So they handled it in a way that was upbeat, positive ending, and showing a strong female character with 'powers'.

The movie suffers from the fact that their great lyricist of the 90s, Howard Ashman, isn't with us anymore. It really makes you appreciate his contribution to popular culture, because Disney didn't have much steam before him, and has had a lot of steam after him (IMHO). But all of you who mentioned the great songs in previous classics that you leave the theater singing, that was Ashman. You'd think Disney could afford another great songwriter, but … well, it makes you appreciate Menken & Ashman as a songwriting team.

And I think that they didn't' have enough time in their standard 90 minutes to do properly develop these complex characters, the way I would have liked if it was an adult movie. The audience has to fill in the gaps on their own.

Nonetheless, this is a terrific movie. It has grown on me. Its got not one, but two main characters; two powerful stories, with characters with different needs. Anna seems to need expressions of love, while Elsa is mostly in fear of her lack of ability to control her power. They both 'come of age' at the same time, with all the confusion that entails. I wish we could have seen more of the butterfly escaping the cocoon (Queen Elsa) and Princess Ana learning self-esteem (hard to imagine a princess without self-esteem, and that's an interesting contemporary story in itself).

I'm a lover of comic books as well, and I couldn't help but compare Elsa's control of the weather with other female comic characters: Storm, of the X-men, who grows into a powerful woman with control over the weather; and Jean Grey, also of the X-Men, who becomes a powerful telekinetic but is doomed by her lack of emotional control as her power balloons. The movies haven't been able to do a good job with either one.

But I don't feel like this Disney movie leaves it blank (like the X-men movies do). We have just enough for the movie-goer to have to play on their imagination, and I think kids 'get it.' I found myself mulling things over for weeks, and the only plot point really not explained was why Elsa never reached out to her sister about her problem (perhaps why that had to be resolved in the movie's finale).

I love stories about powerful, three-dimensional women. I was intrigued by Frozen, where Elsa has a fascinating story even though she's not onscreen very often, in favor of her more charming sister, Anna. Even the music has grown on me. My first viewing left me very disappointed, with the one song a true stand-out because the others are so lame. But I've come around to enjoying every aspect of the movie.

Finally let me say a few words about diversity. I found the trolls to be disappointingly 'ethnic' in a way I felt wasn't' necessary. The story takes place in northern Europe, they should have left it that way, instead of trying to introduce black characters in the form of trolls. Please. Shaking my head. Not charming.

The curse is a mental illness in exactly every way but name. The trolls are described as experts, providing trustworthy medical information on said curse. The entire film says "this is what you do when your sister is depressed" without ever using those words, so that it doesn't rely on a child understanding what mental illness is or waiting for their parents to explain it clearly. Follow your sister. Defend her to her detractors. Parents won't understand - they're ashamed, it's stigmatised. Talk to her, even if it is hard. Don't let isolation or aggression keep you from loving her. Even though she might hurt you, she doesn't mean to. She can't control her illness, can't protect you from it - so you have to try and protect her. And always listen to your psychologists, even if they seem weird.

Yes, I completely agree. I instantly loved this film, and one of the main reasons is because I identifed so much with Elsa's character regarding anxiety, introversion, and most importantly trauma and triggers. Constantly trying to hide and keep everything inside makes it worse, and people keep telling you to keep it to yourself, and then you feel like such a burden you want to run and hide.

I don't even think that's a stretch. I thought Elsa's character was very sympathetic.

A fun movie perfectly crafted and marketed to the 8-year-old-14-year-old female viewer.
A couple of things that stood out to me as being very wrong this day and age are:
(1) The continued demonization of the wolf. (A key player to the ecosystem that is still hunted out of fear to extinction)
(2) A woman punching a man in the face. (this will only insight more future domestic violence in which women have historically been on the losing end)